On Thursday evening, the Senate easily passed the massive Omnibus spending bill by a vote of 72-26. The 1,582-page bill, which packages all 12 appropriations bills into one, rings in with a price tag of $1.1 trillion dollars. Although the bill boosts spending by $26 billion over FY 2013 levels, the total budget is about $30 billion below pre-sequester levels. It provides $63 billion in sequester relief and $85 billion in total savings over the next two years, resulting in about $23 billion in deficit reduction.
This is how the budget adds up:
$520 for defense
+$491 million non-defense
=$1.012 trillion
+
$98 billion not subject to spending cap (mostly war spending and disaster relief)
=$1.1 trillion
Here are some highlights of the omnibus:
- Restores $20 billion for domestic programs that would have been cut by the sequester
- Cuts daily agency operations by $79 billion
- Increases civilian federal workers pay by 1%, the first pay increase in 4 years
- Blocks the U.S. Postal Service from ending Saturday mail delivery
- Increases TIGER funds to $600 million, a 20% increase
- Provides an additional $636 million to fight forest fires
- Decreases funding for CDBG by $278 million
- Decreases Defense Appropriations by $8 billion
The Omnibus was introduced on Monday, and sailed through the House Wednesday afternoon by a vote of 357-64. The House and Senate had to approve a three-day extension of the current Continuing Resolution to keep the government running while they considered the massive spending package. The three-day extension will keep the government running until 11:59PM on January 18th, where after the new Omnibus will take effect at midnight. The Omnibus has been sent to the President for final approval. Read More…
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